Turn off the screens—the television, the computer, the video games. Take time from work, from chores, from the day to day-tasks that keep us busy. Adults and children, take it outside. Each week I will challenge you to see and hear new things—to hunt the woods for wildflowers, to find shapes in nature, to sit by the waterside and listen for unique sounds. So much to experience out in the world!

After the gray tones of winter, it’s time to go out and enjoy the colors of spring. Rich purple hyacinths, bright sunshine yellow daffodils, and happy little purple, white, and orange crocuses. Appreciate the swarth of color created by forsythia and azalea plants. Enjoy the flowering trees that are in disguise all other times of the year: rosy dogwoods, pale pink or gray-white magnolias, soft, almost translucent pink weeping cherry trees. A concert of color right outside your back door! Write and tell us what you see next time you head outside.